Stakeholders in the housing sector have called for property tax reform to address the growing issue of unoccupied houses, and tax relief to encourage developers to build more houses.
Stakeholders who expressed this view yesterday (Sunday December 15) in Abuja, the FCT, at the 6th Edition of the African Housing Awards organised by the Housing Development Advocacy Network (HDAN), said the reforms would aid in tackling the nation’s housing deficit.
The Convener of Award, Festus Adebayo, said property tax relief could encourage property owners to either sell or rent out their vacant properties thereby reducing the number of unused houses.
Adebayo, who is also the Executive Director of HDAN, noted that the poor state of the economy is not encouraging for both the private sector and public sector to deliver affordable housing, thus the need for reforms.
“We should have policies that if you build social housing, low-cost housing, you will be excluded from paying certain taxes,” he advocated.
“This is a way to motivate people to build houses that are affordable. The only way to deliver affordable housing is that the government must come with incentives.
“Government itself must also deliver houses, get free land, get money through budgetary allocation and provide houses for the people.
“Today we are giving the affordable hall of fame awards to people who have made significant contributions in delivering affordable housing,” he said.
Adebayo disclosed that the organisation had been using the hall of fame platform as a watchdog on the government and to create awareness of the benefits of building houses, adding that this had translated into getting more states to go into housing development, with States like Sokoto and Nasarawa keying into the initiative and delivering affordable houses to citizens.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa has said that the federal government is working very hard to continue delivering affordable housing to Nigerians, pointing out that the government currently has 14 active construction sites nationwide for a total of 10,112 housing units.
“We are currently constructing 12 Renewed Hope Estates, comprising 250 housing units each, across 12 states, with two states from each geo-political zone.
“The cities are larger urban projects being developed in the FCT; we have 3,112 units, Kano 2,000 units, and Lagos 2,000 units, with additional cities planned in Enugu, Borno, Rivers, and Nasarawa,” he said.
Also speaking at the event, Mr Shehu Osidi, Managing Director and Chief Executive of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), commended HDAN for its unwavering commitment to promoting sustainable housing development, noting that by its efforts, HDAN is helping to drive “impactful conversations around affordable housing”.
“This event is a laudable initiative by HDAN,” Osidi said. “It is always a thing of joy for us at FMBN to identify with events like this where recognition is being given to worthy individuals and corporate citizens of our great nation.
“By recognising achievements and contributions to the development of the housing sector, the African Housing Awards inspires us all to do more.”
According to the FMBN chief executive, the mortgage bank would continue to expand access to affordable housing through strategic partnerships, innovative financing models and stakeholder engagement.
He said that the FMBN had provided N100 billion off-takers’ guarantee to facilitate the development of the federal government’s ongoing estates around the country.
According to him, the bank is also introducing new products like rent assistance, non-interest mortgage and Diaspora housing fund mortgage..
For his part, Chairman of the Occasion, Musa Sada, former Minister of Mines and Solid Minerals noted that a lot of positive developments have, indeed, taken place in the Nigerian housing sector, pointing that “the awards today are for recognition of excellence and a means of encouragement for players in the sector to be able to make much more effort in seeing that the sector gets to its envisaged destination.”
“(The awards are) reminding us that housing is a human right and, as such, is something that needs to have all the attention that it deserves.
“If we want to solve the housing problem in the country, social housing is key.
“About 80 per cent of the Nigerian population rely on social housing, and we must keep generating ideas to help us to produce a vibrant housing sector in our country,” he said.
